May 17 MISSISSIPPI: Berry appeals execution sentence With less than a week to go before his scheduled execution, Earl Wesley Berry's lawyers want the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to decide if he is mentally retarded, and if so, stop his execution. They also say they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court for a rehearing on appeal from recent Mississippi Supreme Court rulings declining to stop his execution Thursday. In a parallel case, Berry and 4 other condemned men are asking a Mississippi district federal judge to consider issues to stop his death by lethal injection. And late Thursday, his attorneys also sent a petition for clemency to Gov. Haley Barbour seeking less severe punishment for Berry because of his alleged mental retardation. Berry, 49, is set to die for the 1987 murder of Mary Bounds in Chickasaw County. She was beaten to death after leaving her church choir practice and found off a county road. Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution for him or hear his attorneys' arguments that the state's lethal injection method is unconstitutional. In the U.S. District Court case, Berry challenged the state's lethal injection process, but U.S. District Judge Allen Pepper dismissed him as a plaintiff for his execution to proceed. When the state attorney general's office failed to file an answer to their complaint, the court found the state in default. Berry's attorney, James Craig, says that default should lead to an automatic ruling against future executions by lethal injection. But Berry is not included in that ruling. So Craig is asking the judge, as a condition of letting the state back into the defaulted lawsuit, that Berry be put back into the legal action, Berry's execution be postponed and the court hear their objections to the execution process. Craig said that also would necessitate an agreement from Attorney General Jim Hood not to seek any more execution dates until the case is resolved. "Time has run out for Mr. Berry," Hood said. "Justice is at hand, and we hope some measure of peace will come to the family of the victim in this case." Bound's family has criticized the lengthy appeals process and was visibly distraught last year when Berry's life was spared within minutes of his scheduled execution Oct. 30. Hood argues that the state's lethal injection procedure is "substantially similar" to Kentucky's and that Berry is not "mentally retarded." (source: Mississippi Daily Journal) ARIZONA: Death penalty sought in 2 murder cases Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced Friday that his office has filed intent to seek the death penalty in two murder cases, one of a man accused of killing his girlfriend in February and the other of a suspected serial killer already facing the death penalty in 7 killings. Philip Garang Atem, 28, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Yar Jok Gar, 49. He is also accused of wounding Gar's 18-year-old daughter. Dale Hausner, 35, who authorities say is 1 of 2 serial shooters who terrorized Phoenix during an 18-month span, was already facing 7 murder charges when his co-defendant, Samuel Dieteman, implicated him in an 8th murder earlier this year. Authorities say the 2 crisscrossed the Valley in 2005 and 2006, looking for victims and shooting them from the windows of Hausner's car. In addition to the killings, Dieteman and Hausner are believed to have wounded 17 people, killed 7 dogs and 3 horses, and set fires at 2 Wal-Mart stores. The 8th murder charge against Hausner stems from the Nov. 11, 2005, death of Nathaniel Schoffner, 45. Schoffner was shot while walking near 20th and Monroe streets in Phoenix. Among aggravating factors claimed is that Hausner is accused of multiple murders and other serious offenses. Another aggravating factor claimed is that the murder in question was committed in a cold and calculating manner. Hausner is expected to stand trial in September. (source: Arizona Republic) FLORIDA: Prosecutors To Seek Death Penalty Prosecutors will seek the death penalty if they win their case against a Shady Hills man who authorities say killed his mother and stepfather, then went to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino to drink and gamble. Jackie Lee Braden, Jr., 36, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Sherrill and David Wright, both 54. They were found dead in their Shady Hills home Feb. 11. David Wright was shot in the head as he sat in his recliner inside his living room on Moorhaven Drive. His wife was shot three times and was found on her bedroom floor. Braden stayed with the Wrights from time to time, investigators said. Investigators found three broken saw blades in the bedroom near a safe that had been sawed through and pried open, according to court documents. Braden was arrested on drug charges at an Indian Rocks Beach hotel just before midnight on the same night the Wrights' bodies were found. Authorities reportedly found 43 pounds of marijuana and $194,000 in cash inside the hotel room. David Wright's Toyota Tundra, missing from his home, was found parked outside the hotel. Braden also had his stepfather's wallet in his pocket, according to a search warrant affidavit. Investigators have secured video of Braden walking into the casino carrying a black sports bag about 6 a.m. Feb. 8. The Wrights' neighbors had heard gunshots three hours earlier, according to court documents, but the bodies weren't found until David Wright's brother, Woodrow, discovered them 3 days later. By then, authorities had tracked down Braden at the mid-Pinellas County hotel. A judge issued a bench warrant for Braden's arrest on the murder charges Feb. 21. A Pasco County grand jury handed up formal charges March 7. (source: Tampa Tribune) KANSAS: Detective tells of body discovery, confession Wichita police homicide detective Tim Relph testifies during the murder trial of Ted Burnett. Burnett, 51, is accused of strangling 14-year-old pregnant Chelsea Brooks and burying her in a shallow grave in western Butler County. He could face the death penalty if convicted. Ron Sylvester is sending continual -- but ultra-brief -- updates from the Burnett trial via Twitter, and those updates are being fed into our Burnett Trial Updates page. If you're a Twitter user -- or would like to be -- visit Ron's Twitter page to get the updates direct into your own Twitter feed. We also send out Kansas.com's top headlines via Twitter all day. 12 jurors and 2 alternates were seated Wednesday after 8 days of questioning by lawyers. Here's who they are: A 36-year-old white woman, a nurse. She said she generally favors the death penalty. A 32-year-old white woman who works as an education administrator. She said she is neutral on the death penalty. A 46-year-old white woman who works in education. She said she is neutral on the death penalty. A 33-year-old white woman, a payroll manager. She said she was originally opposed to the death penalty but now is neutral. A 48-year-old white man, an electrician. He said he is opposed to the death penalty but said he could consider it and follow the law. A 61-year-old white woman, a nurse. She said she is neutral on the death penalty. A 32-year-old Hispanic man who works in retail. He said he is neutral on the death penalty. A 26-year-old white man who works for a local nonprofit. He said he is neutral on the death penalty. A 75-year-old white man, retired from the post office. He said he is morally opposed to the death penalty but could consider it and follow the law. A 45-year-old black woman who works as a school technical assistant. She said she favors the death penalty but can consider both sides. A 58-year-old white woman, a housekeeper. She said she is neutral on the death penalty. A 22-year-old white woman, a nursing student. She said she is neutral on the death penalty. A 67-year-old black man who is a retired aircraft manufacturing manager. He said he generally favors the death penalty. A 32-year old Hispanic woman who owns a store. She said she is neutral on the death penalty. Lt. Ken Landwehr answered the Wichita police homicide squad's phone after 10 a.m. June 15, 2006. Authorities from Butler County said they'd found a girl's body. Homicide knew their counterparts at the Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child's Unit had been looking for Chelsea Brooks, a pregnant 14-year-old, for the past 6 days. Landwehr summoned Tim Relph, 1 of his 7 homicide investigators. "You'd better get your desks cleared off. We're getting ready to go to work," Detective Relph said, testifying Friday at the capital murder trial of Ted Burnett. Burnett could face the death penalty if convicted on charges of strangling Brooks. Relph said that in any homicide, it's important to follow a fresh trail. But this girl may have been dead for six days already, buried in a shallow grave on a remote dirt road in Butler County. "It was clear if this was a homicide, it was going to take a lot of people," Relph said. "We were already a week behind." Yet Wichita police had to wait for word from Butler County that it was the missing Wichita girl. "You can't just go charging into another county. You have to wait... for some kind of request," Relph said. The signal came after authorities at the grave site unearthed a white flip-flop. Marissa Drydale, a friend of Brooks', told police the weekend before that Chelsea was wearing white flip-flops on June 9, when she didn't return from a Wichita skating rink. By the time Relph and Detective Heather Bachman arrived, crime scene investigators dressed in protective lab suits had already sealed off the area and were sifting through it for evidence. They didn't go into the crime scene. Instead, they waited in a mobile command post, where CSIs brought them detailed, close-up photographs of the excavation. The crime lab workers unearthed the body of a girl with a Walgreens sack around her head and an electronics cord around her neck. Detectives dispatched police through Wichita and surrounding areas, collecting security videos from every Walgreens. "Walgreens was in an expansion at the time," Relph testified. "I think we collected something like 77 tapes." Relph heard Landwehr say: "Find out about that cord." Relph would learn it was a Sony patch cord, used to connect components such as gaming systems and video cameras. Detectives also put out an emergency subpoena to Cricket Communications, seeking records of a cell phone Brooks had on June 9, when she disappeared, and one belonging to Everett Gentry, the last person known to have been with her. Brooks had sent friends text messages saying she was with Gentry, the 17-year-old friend of Elgin Ray Robinson Jr. Robinson, 20, fathered her unborn child. Gentry told police he hadn't seen Brooks that night. Still, police went to arrest Gentry and located him the next day at 1300 N. Piatt, Relph said. Officers brought Gentry to an interview room at the detectives unit on the 6th floor of City Hall. Relph and Bachman read Gentry his rights, and he agreed to talk to them. It was 11:56 a.m. June 16, 2006. For 2 hours, Gentry insisted he hadn't seen Brooks. He was with his girlfriend that night and over the weekend, Gentry said. They had just had a baby themselves. The detectives took a break. By that time, the cell phone records had arrived. Cell phones can be tracked by where the signals bounce off the nearest towers, Relph testified. The records showed Gentry calling from the Andover area on the night he claimed to be in Wichita. Relph went back into the room with Gentry and slid the records across the table. "You can explain a lot of things," Relph remembered telling Gentry. "But you've got to explain that." "Have you talked to Ray?" Gentry asked. "We'll get to Ray," Relph said. "I'm talking to you." Gentry confessed that Robinson set up the killing. "Did he tell you they enlisted the help of a third party?" prosecutor Marc Bennett asked during Relph's testimony. "Yes," Relph said. "Who was that?" Bennett asked. "Ted Burnett," Relph said. It was the 1st time during the trial a witness had said Burnett's name. Gentry is scheduled to take the stand Monday. (source: The Wichita Eagle)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISS., ARIZ., FLA., KAN.
Rick Halperin Sat, 17 May 2008 10:45:28 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
